In a case where residents died in a landslide triggered by heavy rain after construction of a solar power plant proceeded contrary to the approved design, officials of the construction company were again given suspended prison sentences on appeal.
The Criminal Division 2 of the Chuncheon District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Seong-rae, Director General) said on the 29th that it dismissed the appeals of A, 57, the de facto head of the civil engineering contractor for the solar power plant, and B, 52, the site manager, who were put on trial on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death.
Accordingly, the first-trial ruling sentencing each of the two to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, was upheld.
According to the indictment, A and B carried out civil engineering work for a solar power plant from Oct. 2017 to Jan. 2018 in the Dunnae-myeon area of Hoengseong County, Gangwon. In the process, they told the developer that if the work proceeded according to the initial design, a considerable amount of earth would need to be cut and piled, lengthening the construction period and increasing the expense.
However, the developer was found to have ordered the design to be changed without obtaining approval from the competent administrative authority so the work could be completed quickly.
A and B accepted this and proceeded with the work without applying the originally planned dry stone masonry method, keeping the natural slope as it was.
In particular, they piled up soil generated during construction to as high as 10 meters, far above the 2 meters planned in the design, and did not conduct a separate safety review of the resulting slope.
The site had previously experienced heavy rain, and at the foot of the hillside stood the dwellings of C, 68.
On Aug. 9, 2022, heavy rain fell around the site, and a large volume of earth flowed down the mountain with the rainwater. The earth buried C's house, and C died in the accident.
As in the first trial, A and B argued on appeal that there was no causal relationship between their construction and the resident's death.
However, the court did not accept their claims based on on-site photos and expert analyses. The court judged, "Even at a common-sense level, it is not difficult to recognize that the solar construction site was the starting point of the collapse."
The judgment was also supported by experts in forestry, geology, and forest engineering, who analyzed that during the heavy rain, water concentrated on the embankment slope, weakening the ground and triggering the collapse.
The court found that the developer was motivated to shorten the construction period to reduce the interest burden on construction loans exceeding 1.8 billion won, and that A and B accepted the developer's demands to maintain their subcontracting relationship.
Both defendants, who were found guilty in the first and second trials, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, D, 59, the project developer for the solar power plant, and E, 56, the site manager, were also indicted on the same charge and, in the first trial, were sentenced to one year and two months in prison, suspended for two years, and one year in prison, suspended for two years, respectively. They did not appeal, so the first-trial verdicts were finalized as is.